The leader of the Republican Party, José Antonio Kast, admitted this Sunday evening that his party has “nothing to celebrate” after 55% of Chileans rejected the constitutional proposal that his party had pushed forward. “The government of Gabriel Boric and the left have nothing to celebrate either,” he added, arguing that the damage done to the country in these four years of constitutional debate was “gigantic” and that it would take a long time to repair it to repair . The former far-right presidential candidate is one of the main faces of the election defeat. After learning the results, Kast delivered his speech only in the company of the Republican leadership, without any authority from the traditional right-wing parties that also supported the favorable option. “We have failed to convince Chileans that this text is a better constitution than the current one,” he said.
Republicans received the results within their campaign headquarters in the municipality of Las Condes, in the eastern part of the capital. After several hours of silence and away from the press, the militants appeared to acknowledge their defeat. With music referencing the Republican Party and waving Chilean flags, supporters and Kast sang the Chilean anthem. Accompanied by his wife Pía Adriasola, the former presidential candidate was seen smiling. On stage, along with lawmakers and former Republican constitutional advisers, he began his appearance with an optimistic message: “We may be sad, but we are happy because we did the job.”
“We recognize this defeat very clearly and also with great humility. “For several reasons and explanations that we will have to analyze in the coming weeks,” said the leader of the far right, who for months has been convinced that the results that predicted a rejection of the proposal with conservative undertones and without political consensus were reversed would be. The formation's general secretary, Ruth Hurtado, said: “The result was not what we expected, but we show our face.”
This result changes the hegemony that the Republican Party achieved in the elections for Constitutional Councils last May, when it became the first political force with 35% of the vote, which corresponded to 23 of the 50 seats (at that time 22 remained). Now the Chile Vamos coalition, which unites the parties of the traditional right (Independent Democratic Union, National Renewal and Evópoli), will once again claim its place as the main reference in this sector, since it was the Republicans who pushed the failed proposal the Magna Change charter. Attention will likely focus on Evelyn Matthei, mayor of UDI, the party's main presidential ticket, who will predictably compete with Kast for the conservative electorate in the 2026 La Moneda race.
In a short message to X, Matthei stated: “Four years of uncertainty are over.” Meanwhile, the country has deteriorated in the areas of crime, economy, health and, above all, coexistence.” In September, the mayor warned that the constitutional proposal was “doomed to fail” and was dissatisfied with regulations for three reasons the abortion and the exemption from contributions for the first home could have an impact. However, she later announced her approval and actively participated in the campaign. Javier Macaya, president of the UDI, was this Sunday the first leader of the pro-command to acknowledge its defeat. He assured that there is “obviously a lack of time” to convey the message to citizens, but that society is fed up with the issue. He also called on all opposition forces to the Boric government to act together.
Kast is expected to face friendly fire not only from Chile Vamos, but also from a right-wing section of Republicans who distanced themselves from the party during the constitutional process. The clearest example of tension occurred a few weeks ago when Senator Rojo Edwards resigned from the Republican Party because he felt the leadership was no longer focused on social needs and announced his vote against the proposed constitutional proposal. The celebratory hugs at headquarters, where Edwards continued to control despite Republican isolation, were one of the images of the day. “20% of the opposition supports freedom,” Edwards said. “We have to do something to defend them and we feel that our ideas are supported by citizens (…) In two more years there will be a government that defends freedom,” he added thus hinted at his political ambitions.
The departure of Edwards, who announced his intention to form a new libertarian formation, affected the Republicans' discrete representation in Congress, leaving them with only one senator out of 50 and 12 representatives out of 155. In this new scenario of defeat, it is likely that Kast will be accused of having joined the constitutional process, even though they were never going to reform it, which was born in the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1970-1990) and has been reformed around 70 times since 1989 to replace the constitution.